Destiny Not Getting "Major Changes" After Last Month's Beta

If there's something big you were hoping would be changed, you're likely out of luck.

Destiny's beta was a "tremendous success" and will lead to changes being made prior to the full game's release on September 9. If you're hoping for those changes to be substantial, however, it sounds as if you'll be disappointed.

As part of an Activision Blizzard investors call this week, Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg talked about what Destiny's beta means for the final game. Reiterating that it was the biggest beta ever for a new IP, Hirshberg said, "[W]e were able to test everything at scale and everything held up well. I don't think it's an overstatement to say that feedback was nearly universally positive.

"I would describe these as tweaks and not major changes as we saw the fundamentals of the game to be very strong" -- Eric Hirshberg

"That said, as you might imagine, we learned a lot by watching players engage with the game and hearing their feedback and Bungie is now making tweaks to optimize the game and they actually did so after the alpha as well, so that's going to be, I think, an ongoing process to make it a better experience and nothing is more important to us or to Bungie than delivering a great experience to our community and the beta certainly helped us do that."

Without identifying what kind of changes will be made, Hirshberg offered some sense of how significant they will be, saying, "I would describe these as tweaks and not major changes as we saw the fundamentals of the game to be very strong."

It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that, with the game just over a month way, Bungie won't be completely revamping it. If you weren't a fan of something like the game's structure or gunplay, you'll have to hold out hope that things will be changed in one of the yet-to-be-announced sequels coming as part of the studio's 10-year deal with Activision.

Bungie hasn't yet gone into great deal about all of the changes that will be made to Destiny following the beta. A recent Bungie Weekly Update post on its website did, however, mention a few tweaks, such as reducing the Interceptor vehicle's rate of fire and reducing the blast radius of rockets.

Just give us the option to have facial hair... Seriously, the Awoken who try's to recruit you into the "Dead-Orbit" (I think that's the name of it) has a friggin' goatee, but we don't have any option for facial hair.i supose the exo's (robots) could have wires/pipes/tubes for facial hair.

@Jew1 Probably the lesser of two evils though - This is how I saw it happen:

Bungie didn't want to continue with the Halo series. In fact, I clearly remember them stating they had only planned it to be a trilogy. (Halo CE, 2, 3.) Microsoft pressured them into milking it for what it's worth with spinoffs and prequels. (ODST, Reach.) Microsoft also has a nasty track record of doing this to other developers. (Gears of War series comes to mind. Gears of War Judgment probably wasn't something that was planned, neither was continuing the series on Xbox One.)

Whereas Activision will bleed one thing dry, Microsoft appears to bleed multiple series dry and when developers don't play ball they bully them into selling them the rights. (Halo went to 343 Industries, Gears of War is going to Black Tusk Studios.) Not to say that Activision is not guilty of it either, they completely murdered Guitar Hero. As for whether it's going to be another CoD clone, I couldn't say. But even CoD is fragmented across Treyarch and Infinity Ward, last I checked. So yes, it does look pretty bleak. But it could also be a 10 year deal to release a FEW sequels over the course of 10 years. A lot goes into those contracts, and it may have been left up to Bungie to decide how to use that time for what they put out. Or Activision wants utter and complete development oversight with timetables. No one can say for sure.

As for them not making changes to the final game over the beta, I actually had the chance to play the beta. Mostly everything worked, with a few network disconnections. Even the download for the beta said it. "Does not represent final code." If they decide to add features last minute though, it's going to be small since they don't have the time to code and QA it before release. So I can understand them not tweaking anything too heavily.

So the game with horribly unresponsive controls, no quest log or even direction on what to do or where to go in an extremely linear "open world" is all set to go for release? I really want to know who these people are that review games and give "raving" reviews. I was at least hoping for a recycled borderlands.... but destiny didn't even come close. Maybe the voice chat will work on release though.

@krazydinger well a lot of journalists will be paid to give positive reviews or they'll get a free game or something as a deal. So these days if you want a 10/10 on gamspot like last of us remastered, you have to give a little incentive or it may just be an 8-9.5. as for the kids, they are all too busy suckling bungies nips to notice any flaws

@vadagar1 it is boring and overly repetitive while it takes no time to lvl up not to mention the multiplayer is poorly designed and there are no differences between the three classes you play as. oh and the raids require you to have 5 other friends who can be on and stay on with you while you attempt to complete them, no matchmaking for them.

One nice change that's needed is the weapons selection screen, it should be opaque/transparent so you can still kind of see the action happening around you. Nothing groundbreaking but something a lot of games do that require you to swap weapons and equipment while the game is still going on.

I played the beta extensively, and I mentioned earlier here that i was disappointed in the fact that parties are only 3 people max...People with large friend lists could have an issue with that, trying to fit a bunch of buddies into 3 slots.

I read below though that raiding parties can actually utilize a bunch of friends on your list...can anyone verify this or send a link..thanks in advance for looking after my laziness haha

I suppose it is a bit late in the day to be making major changes, and the game's already suffered two major delays right?

People's opinions seem to fall into three radically different categories, and ignoring the overly negative the others seem to be backed up by what I've seen in gameplay videos. I think I'm going to have to try before I ultimately buy.

if this game does not support more than 3 person parties it will be a huge letdown, and quite frankly, a little unacceptable. With new consoles, and more performance power, this is one area I expect to be stronger than last gen. Trying to find ways to accommodate 4 or 5 friends at a time on this game is going to be a real pain in the ass...

@normanislost@gamersince78 which is kind of to my point above...I expect more...ex gen should not be holding back current gen...if I see one more re-release like TLOU, Sleeping Dogs, etc...I might just throw both my systems out the window...well not likely...but you know what I mean haha.

oh...also... the game was pretty good, but I am not going to say great. It may be great, but the issue I have at the moment is that I am comparing it to current games on next gen consoles, both PS4 and X1 (which I have both for clarity sake). With that said, my concern is whether this game is good or just good comparatively speaking to the crap that is out at the moment. There is a total lack of good content at the moment (minus Titanfall I guess, and PnZ, TLOU, Infamous). I look at destiny and I think to myself...is that girl hot...or is she just hot because it is the end of the night, and nothing else is around...

I want it to be good...even great...but I will reserve final judgement once I have played the final product.

@gamersince78 I agree. I want it to be amazing and I think it will be. I even say it is from what I played but it would be dumb for any of us to state that it will be an amazing game when we played less than 10% of the final product. But from what we've seen it's looking promising and I am excited

@gamersince78 The fireteams only support 3 person parties but that would be for Strikes. If you have 4-5 friends you will be a prime candidate for the end game raid content which is 6 person. What I don't know off hand is if you can join competitive maps with a group of friends as a party or not.

:) i have watched videos and read chats/debates on this site for over 6 years plus now and think is great and never have i ever felt the need or wanted to make an account to make an actual comment to "get involved" if you like . but someone has to lay the corner stone for people to build apon. Im not a serious gamer but i lv games and the technology and fun they bring we are all lucky to live in an era when gaming is having so much money pumped into it . so anyway to my actual point destiny is a great game however you look at it weather it was bad gamplay or good gameplay good arkwork bad artwork work its a look into the future this is a spec into the ocean to what is to come an ever evolving never ending universe to explore at your pleasure mixed with vitual reality and sifi no one could imagine . Appreciate a masterpiece when you see one no one is making you play it and certainly not forcing you to buy it . there is gd and bad in everything as thats why we are all different we all like different things which is what makes humans great and help us survive. ENJOY GAMING GUYS ENJOY DESTINY AS I LV IT!!! 09/09/2014 I WILL BE A LEGEND!!! .

@PlatinumPaladin@empourerdontaus :) i didnt realise you are head of the tec department i do apolagise so destiny is going to fail is it as i cant remember saying that and at no piont can i remember saying it wont do well with out me praising it up but then again you are the one that knows best as who are you again?

@PlatinumPaladin@empourerdontaus lol a piontless conversation as its obviously got mixed up as it was going through that very small brain of yours .No on the contrary i like peoples opinions but when its an actual opinion worth having and yours tec expert certainly aint. Your what i like to call a ( background know it all ) who really knows nothing . I think the only person who is really annoyed is you as you felt the need to reply to my post in your asshole head remember.

@empourerdontaus Nice genuine sounding comment. Seemed to come from the heart. Be careful of those who can't understand genuine sentiment. It confuses them. Aka trolls and flamers in commentators clothing. If you ever need a full fire team on xbone just hit me up. I WILL BE LEGEND TOO.

@GreyWolf217@empourerdontaus lol Cheers m8 appreciate that . yh i no exactly what you mean it does make me smile . Yh will be sure to team up cant wait for the game is another reason i like it so much the social gaming aspect of it as its so easy to friend up and play with people you may not of got the chance to of met before. catch ya later pal.

Had plenty of fun in the Beta. Bit surprised they're not looking into the likes of customization at least. I thought it was very lacking. Not a major issue though I suppose. Looking forward to getting my Warlock up & at it again!

@MISTMAN77 I am one really for customization. The customization as far as for your Guardian was kind of lacking a little. As for the armor it was but since it's beta that part I'm holding off on judgement. I'm excited to see what they have and I think if that's all the customization for your appearance I'll be happy as long as they have a huge selection of different gear.

@fatman9994@MISTMAN77 Maybe I didn't do enough in the beta to see for sure, but I got the impression there would be decent customization options when you got to higher levels. It looked like the armor shaders would be available and then there were the various factions you could purchase gear from that could also further set you apart from the masses. We'll see soon enough I guess.

I'm hoping that they manage to throw in a chat system or an easier way to to join group for co-op play. half the time i just invited anyone that was in the same area i was with a similar level and setting things up to talk to them took far too much time

@DawnBlue i remember seeing some guy on the enemy team with this massive vehicle it looked boxy but i cant be sure cuz you might as well call it the grim reaper it intsa killed you and had alot of health

Problem with this game is there are too many CoD players playing it expecting it to play exactly like CoD. While it's a first person shooter, it's not as frenetic or simple as CoD. When people get that through their thick heads then they can appreciate the game for what it is. A different type of FPS, one that plays out like an MMO and like an MMO you will need to link up with trustworthy mates to tackle the harder objectives. I like a game that tries to do something a bit different, CoD just throws you in rooms with randoms, this game here requires you to actually have them on your friends list, so if they are on that list you probably have some level of faith that they will do their part in missions to ensure success.

I wasn't expecting much in the way of large changes, but I wish that Bungie would create more variables within each class, small, medium and large in each class, and each varies in base stats and genders would play into this as well except for the Exo which sex is meaningless and they should always be physically the strongest no matter the class but weaker light abilities since they are not living bio-organisms. Heck I'd love a human or awakened with exo parts, like an exo eye which grants a slight boost in ADS readiness. The avatars can be reworked to make them truly unique.

@SavageEvil I think as far as variety within classes goes, the other subclasses and the various tweaks you can choose between in terms of base armor, speed, and recovery will end up giving a lot more variety than what we saw in the beta. I also kind of like the idea of some small effects on your armor and such depending upon your choice of race, and it certainly wouldn't hurt to have more options in terms of character customization, though at the same time, I found what was there to be reasonable enough considering how little I actually saw of my character's face and such anyway.

@Llama345 I don't think they get more health, its the armor that is tougher to damage. If your damage output isn't high enough per second you won't deal any damage at all. MMO's are like that it's all usually set health but actually doing damage to actually reduce health is the issue.